Ultimate Fat Burning and Conditioning Drills
WARNING:
These drills and exercises are only recommended to individuals who have no health problems and are in reasonably good shape, who exercise on a regular basis, A warm and stretch down up must also be performed.
As a Martial Artist and fitness instructor I have always been an avid follower of the many new and varied exercises ,conditioning and fitness regimes that have become the 'flavour of the month'.
Many fades will come and go but other exercise principles will last the test of time. We can still learn a lot from 'old style' training methods as well as new.
One question I am frequently asked is 'How can I effectively burn body fat?
Well this is a big question and one that cannot be answered in a few sentences.
What I am going to outline in this article is what I believe to be true. These methods have worked for me and for many fighters, Martial Artists and fitness fanatics that I have coached over many years. They could well work for you too.
What is a healthy body fat range to work for? Males it is13 to 18 %, females18 to 25%.Athletic levels are 5to12%males and 10 to 20% for females.
So firstly is there an optimum heart rate zone to exercise in to burn fat efficiently?
Well this will depend on the client that you are working with. If they are an overweight, sedentary person who hasn't exercised since there P.E lessons at school then you would probably get them doing cardiovascular exercise around 65%to 70% of their maximum heart rate. A quick way to roughly work out your maximum training heart rate zone is to subtract your age from 220. So for example if I take my age of 48 and subtract that from 220 it equals172.Now if I multiply that by . 70 that will equal 121.That is now 70% 0f my max heart rate. In the fitness industry the 65% -70% has become known as the 'fat burning zone'.
If the client has no health issues they should be able to exercise in this zone comfortably, lose weight and burn body fat. It has been proven for this type of client they will achieve some initial success.
The problem that we can run into here is that if their progress is not monitored properly they will reach a plateau were they will no longer be losing weight or body fat.
One reason can be that they are now fit enough to move out of that 65% to 70% training zone and push up to the 75 to 85% zone. But because they have been told the 65 to 70% zone is the 'fat burning zone. They will not move out of it for fear they will no longer burn fat .In fact the opposite is true, if they stay in that zone when their body is prepared for higher intensity work they will find little or no benefit whatsoever.
So we can conclude from this there is a time in your training were the 'fat burn' zone will work for you and a time were you need to break out of the comfort zone and push on .This is termed as ' Adaptation '.
When you have that higher fitness level then this is were you can really begin to start some excellent high intensity fat burn drills. These really work, but you must be ready to work too.
One good thing is that you can do these workouts in super short time; you do not need to be pounding the roads or the treadmills for hours on end.
If your goal is not to be a runner then why put yourself through that sort of routine. Ask most seasoned runners are they carrying any injuries and they will probably spend 20 minutes telling you about them.
The body will eventually rebel against long sustained exercise. I know myself at 47 years of age you begin to get pain you never thought you'd experience.
I believe short high intensity exercise is the key to weight management and fat burning.
Obviously a sensible nutrition plan is also essential but that is not the focus of this article. Also there will always be the person who is the exception to the rule.
So what are the benefits of these types of workouts?
• It produces the after effect E.P.O.C (excess exercise oxygen consumption).Its a scientific way of describing the calories you burn after you are done exercising. You can go on burning calories up to 48 hours later. That got to be good news! Note steady paced cardio exercise will not do this.
• A university study showed nine times more body fat can be burnt this way than through traditional exercise methods i.e. jogging.
• It can rev up your body's metabolism to help burn fat more efficiently.
• Workouts will be shorter ,no long hours in the gym
• You can do these routines anywhere; you don't have to use any equipment if you don't want too.
This is all great news but it comes at a price. To train this way you have to be totally focused and be prepared to work hard, hard, and hard!
There are many great routines you can adapt to achieve the ultimate fat burn and also sky rocket your fitness levels. I am going to talk about one method called Tabata intervals.
Tabata Intervals.
Dr Izumi Tabata at the National Institute of fitness and sports in Tokyo, Japan, came up with this form of short, explosive exercise.
The Tabata Intervals can be varied but the basic one works on 20 seconds of fast ,explosive exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest and can be done as many times as you wish. I do this over 4 minute rounds with my
Fighters, so they complete 8 repetitions of whatever intervals we are doing. It doesn't sound like much but if you are honestly pushing to your maximum the intervals will blow you away.
Here listed below is an example of a 4minute workout
- Sprawls 20 secs -rest 10 secs
-- Push ups 20 secs -rest 10 secs
- Jump squats 20 secs -rest 10 secs
- V ups (abs) 20 secs -rest 10 secs
- Knee tucks 20 secs -rest 10 secs
- Hindu push ups 20 secs-rest 10 secs
- Alternating leg lunges 20 secs -rest 10 secs
- Abs crunches 20 secs -rest 10 secs.
This is a 4 minute routine composed of body weight conditioning. Try 3 four minutes rounds with a 60 sec break between rounds and see what you think!
Done to full capacity with no cheating your lungs will feel like they are bursting and your heart will be pounding like a trip hammer.
You can crank it up to four rounds for a 16 minute workout or go for the big 5 rounds for the 20 minute blaster!
Tabata's studies found that over a period of six weeks students who tried these types of workouts increased their anaerobic capacity by 28%, along with 14% increase in Vo2max.All ideal for the combat athlete.
The possibilities are endless. You could hill sprint 20 secs 10 secs rest then push ups for 20 secs etc.You can use one exercise or any combination depending on the length of your workout.
If you want to crank it up more you can leave out the 10 seconds rest and go red line ,no stopping !This takes bags of motivation and steely resolve.
A non stop 4 minute round could be 100 two footed rope jumps followed by 10 push ups and 20 jumping squats repeated until 4 minutes is up .If you are not using the 20 on 10 off principle then of cause you can make the rounds as long as you want .Try that same routine non stop for 16 minutes. Go on I dare you .
Gladiator total body workout.
I based this workout class of mine on the above mentioned methods and the results are awesome. Participants fitness levels have zoomed and their body fat is melting away .This class is based on 30 t0 35 minutes of continual high intensity exercise, no stopping. This is an ultimate conditioner .I lead the class every week and my fitness and conditioning is still as high as when I was fighting some years back now .I am an absolute believer in this form of training.
If you are new to this type of training at first you may want to stop, slow your pace and give in...Don't! Keep trying and I promise you will feel the benefits.
MORE FAT BURNING DRILLS
Tabata intervals 4min rounds
Jab and cross the bag full blast no stop for 20 secs rest 10 secs go again. As many rounds as you can.
Knee the Thai pads full blast, left /right knee 20 secs then rest 10 secs.As many rounds as you want
Round kick heavy shield hard and fast for 20 secs (right leg only), then 10 secs rest ,go again left leg etc.
Kneel in mount position over a heavy punch bag .Fire right /left punches on the bag, full speed and power for 20 secs, rest 10 etc.
Hybrid Tabata drills
- Burpees 20 secs +10 secs rest
-- Pull ups 20 secs+10rest
- Squats 20 secs +10 rest
Repeat 4 times
Random fat burners
Burpees 30 secs
Jumping jacks 30 secs
Alternating leg lunges 30 secs
Hindu jump squats30 secs
Mountain climbers 30 secs
4 rounds 1 min rest between rounds
100 rope turns
10 burpees
10 push ups
10 jump squats
No rest complete 10 circuits as fast as possible.
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